Chapter 7 Studies And Terms

Question 1

Fazio and Williams Study: Election

Answer 1

-5 months before Reagan and Mondale 1984 election
-measured how long it took participants to indicate attitude toward Reagan
-those who responded quickly to attitude question showed greater consistency between their attitude and how they ultimately voted compared to those who responded relatively slow
-example of response latency

Question 2

Affect Definition

Answer 2

(Emotion): how much someone likes or dislikes an object - nearly every object triggers some degree of positive or negative emotions which constitutes the affective component of the attitude someone has towards it

Question 3

Cognitions

Answer 3

Thoughts that typically reinforce a person’s feelings (include knowledge and beliefs about the object, and associated memories and images

Question 4

Behaviours

Answer 4

(Specific behaviours): affective evaluation of good versus bad is connected to a behavioural tendency to either approach of avoid (attitudes alert us to rewarding objects we should approach and to costly or punishing objects we should avoid)
-when specific attitudes are brought to mind (primed) people are more likely to behave in ways consistent with the attitude

Question 5

Ito, Cacioppo, and colleagues study: pictures

Answer 5

-P’s primed with positively valences pictures or negatively valences pictures - as they looked at them, experimenters recorded the participants’ brain activity on scalp and studied brain regions known to be involved in evaluative responses to stimuli
Discovered a clear negative bias in evaluation: negative stimuli generated greater brain activity than positive or neutral stimuli

Question 6

LaPiere study: Chinese Tourists

Answer 6

-toured US with young Chinese couple - went to many hotels, camp grounds, restaurants, and cafes
-thought prejudice and discrimination against Chinese individuals were common at the time, his travel companions were denied service by only 1 of 250 establishments they visited
-LaPiere emailed all establishments to ask about whether their policy was to serve “orientals” - about 90% said they wouldn’t - suggests attitudes don’t predict behaviour very well

Question 7

Situationists view of Attitudes

Answer 7

-say attitudes don’t always win out over these other determinants, hence attitudes aren’t always tightly connected to behaviour
-eg. understanding of the prevailing norms of the appropriate behaviour can determine how a person reacts and weaken the relationship between their attitudes and behaviours
-eg. hotel and restaurant owners in LaPiere’s study may have wanted to turn away Chinese people, but didn’t out of concern for how it would look and the scene it would cause

Question 8

Timothy and Wilson study: dating

Answer 8

-asked students about the person they were dating
-one group: gave an overall evaluation of their relationship
-other groupL listed reasons they felt the way they did and then gave overall relationship evaluation
-contacted participants again 9 months later and asked about status of relationship
-attitudes of participants in first group (who evaluated relationship without considering reasons) were much more accurate predictors of their current relationship status than the attitudes of the participants who had introspected about their reasons for liking their partner
-thinking about reasons we like someone can mislead our true, full attitude toward the person making attitude we report after generating reasons not a good predictor of subsequent behaviour

Question 9

Contaminating Effect of Introspection

Answer 9

-occurs in times when the true source of our attitude is hard to pin down, as when basis of attitude is largely affective (emotional) - here a cognitive thoughtful analysis is likely to seize on seemingly plausible but misleading cognitive reasons

Question 10

LaPiere’s study and predicting attitudes

Answer 10

-attitudes expressed by various merchants were rather general: whether they would serve orientals
-behaviour assessed was directed at one specific Chinese couple with specific demeanour and dressed in specific fashion - results may have been different if LaPiere had asked merchants whether they would serve a well-dressed pleasant Chinese couple
-if you want to predict a specific type of behaviour accurately, you have to measure people’s attitudes toward that specific behaviour

Question 11

Lord, Lepper, and Mackie study: Gay Men

Answer 11

-male college students expressed attitudes about gay men
-researchers also elicited from each student his stereotype of the “typical” cay man
-two months later - different experimenter asked p’s if they would be willing to show visiting students around campus - one visitor described in way that participants would think he’s gay
-half of participants got description that was crafted to fir their specific stereotype, other half got a general description
-found that students willingness to show guy around campus (their behaviour) was strongly predicted by their attitudes about gay men (those with positive attitudes said they were willing; those with negative attitudes weren’t - but only if guy matched their prototype of a gay individual
-if he didn’t fit their image, attitudes about gay people didn’t predict their behaviour (willingness to show him around campus)

Question 12

Predicting attitudes from behaviour

Answer 12

Behaviour can powerfully influence attitudes
-people tend to bring their attitudes in line with their actions

Question 13

Cognitive Consistency Theory

Answer 13

-maintains that impact of behaviour on attitudes reflects powerful tendency we have to justify or rationalize our behaviour and to minimize any inconsistencies between attitudes and actions

Question 14

Knox and Inkster Study: racetrack bettors

Answer 14

-interviewed bettors at racetrack, some just before and some just after placing bets
-predicted that act of placing bet and irrevocably choosing particular horse would cause bettors to reduce dissonance associated with chosen horse’s negative features and positive features of competing horse
-dissonance reduction should be reflected in greater confidence on part of those interviewed right after placing bets, once rationalization has set in
-bettors who we’re interviewed right before placing bets gave horses on average a “fair” chance of winning; those interviewed after betting gave horses on average a “good” chance of winning

Question 15

Frenkel, Doob; Regan and Kilduff studies: dissonance thoughts

Answer 15

In elections: voters express greater confidence in their candidates when interviewed after they’ve voted than when interviewed right beforehand

Question 16

Effort Justification

Answer 16

-tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying time, effort, or money devoted to something that turned out to be unpleasant or disappointing

Question 17

Aronson and Mills study: sex discussion

Answer 17

-students told no everyone can speak freely about topic, so potential participants had to pass screening test to join group
-control condition: read aloud a list of innocuous words to the male experimenter
-“mild” initiation condition: read aloud a list of mildly embarrassing words associated with sex
-“severe initiation” condition: read list of obscene words and passage from novel describing sexual intercourse
-participants all told they passed screening test and could join the group
-group were told to just listen to discussion - in headphones in nearby cubicle they heard a boring discussion of the sex life of invertebrates
-investigators predicted discussion would be boring and disappointing to all participants but would produce dissonance only for those who underwent severe initiation to join the group
-reduced dissonance by convincing themselves that the group and discussion weren’t so boring after all
-indeed, those in severe initiation condition rated quality of the discussion more favourably than those in other two conditions
-example of effort justification

Question 18

The idea effect

Answer 18

-in these studies participants assembled ikea boxes and lego sets and then all participants indicated how much they would pay for their own product, a prebuilt product, or someone else’s finished product
-self-built product: 78 cents - was worth 48 cents if built by someone else
-for lego set: prebuilt set: 32 cents for own set, bid on someone else’s set: 26 cents
-for participant built set: 84 cents for self-built, 42 cents for partner’s set
-difficulty to acquire finished product when you build it yourself made people justify their effort with evaluating product more positively and charging more for it

Question 19

Pain as a function of payment study

Answer 19

-P’s rated how much subjective pain they felt and emotional attachment felt toward mug when paying for it with either cash (for which a loss of money is more vivid and concrete) vs. Credit card (abstract; less painful)
-how painful is it to pay for a mug on a scale of 0-5
-with cash: 4.09
-with card: 2.10
-what minimum price would you sell the mug for?
-cast: $6.71
-card: $3.83

Question 20

Induced compliance

Answer 20

When people are induced to behave in a manner that’s inconsistent with their beliefs, attitudes, or values
-most people feel discomfort with the mismatch between behaviour and attitudes
-one way to deal with it: change original attitudes

Question 21

Festinger and Carlsmith study: experimental drudgery (mundane tasks)

Answer 21

-participants in control condition engage in mundane tasks for an hours - immediately after are asked to rate how much they enjoyed the experiment (gave quite low ratings)
-2 other conditions also had participants do boring tasks but were told experiment involved how performance on task is influenced by expectations about it before hand - participants were lead to believe they were in a control “no expectation” condition but that other subjects were told beforehand that experiment was interesting or boring
-P’s were told to tell participant that was coming in that the study was interesting (P was offered $1 or $20 to deliver this message) - nearly every participant agreed
-when participant who was paid $1 to do the task later evaluated their experience, they rated it highly compared to those in other conditions - they rationalized their behaviour by changing their attitude about the task they had performed (couldn’t justify that they committed act of saying it was good for only the money so they had to change their attitude)
-takeaway: if you want to persuade people to do something and you want them to internalize the broader message behind the behaviour, use smallest amount of incentive or coercion necessary to get them to do it

Question 22

Aronson, Carlsmith, Freedman, and Lepper Study: Forbidden Toy

Answer 22

-kids shown set of 5 toys and had to say how much they liked each one - experimenter left and said while he was gone kids could play with all toys but their 2nd favourite
-half of kids told not to play with toy because experimenter would be annoyed if they did (mild threat)
-if kid played with forbidden toy experimenter would be very angry and would have to take all the toys and kid would have to go home and never return (severe threat)
-no kids played with forbidden toy
-predicted that not playing with toy would produce dissonance, but only for kids in mild condition
-for all children - not playing with toy was inconsistent with fact it was highly desirable — but for those who received severe threat, severity of threat justified not playing with toy
-kids who received mild threat didn’t have much justification for not playing with toy - this produced dissonance and they likely would resolve the inconsistency by devaluing the toy and convincing themselves they didn’t like it
-children re-evaluated all 5 toys when experimenter cam back
-severe threat kids either didn’t change rating or liked it even more than before
-many kids in mild threat viewed toy less favourably
-severe punishment - put’s off want to do thing for a short time, mild punishment changes kids attitudes and deters them from wanting to do the thing they wanted to do

Question 23

We ought to experience dissonance when we act in ways that are inconsistent with our core values and beliefs and:

Answer 23

1. The behaviour was freely chosen
2. The behaviour wasn’t sufficiently justified
3. The behaviour had negative consequences
4. The negative consequences were foreseeable

Question 24

Pascal’s Wager

Answer 24

The birth of cost-benefit analysis and cognitive consistency theory
Cost-benefit analysis: comparing the total expected costs and benefits of different options and choosing accordingly
Cognitive consistency theory: if you behave in line with what you want to believe, beliefs will change to match behaviour

Question 25

Linder, Cooper, and Jones Study: writing an essay

Answer 25

-students offered 50 cents of $2.50 to write essay in favour of state law banning communists from speaking on college campus
-nearly all students were opposed to this law and their essays thus conflicted with their true beliefs
-for half of participants - freedom to agree (or decline) to write essay was emphasized, for other half it was not
-was no dissonance effect among participants whose freedom to agree or decline wasn’t emphasized
-those paid 2.50 later expressed attitudes more in favour of ban than those paid 50 cents (presumably because essay was associated with good feelings that accompany later reward)
-in free choice group, standard dissonance effect was obtained: those paid 50 cents changed their attitudes more than those paid $2.50

Question 26

Cooper and Worchel study: experiment was boring or interesting

Answer 26

-had participants tell someone that a boring experiment was very interesting by offering either small or large incentive for doing so
-half of time: confederate appeared convinced that boring task would be interesting, and half of time confederate remained unconvinced
-no negative consequences when person appeared unconvinced (no one was deceived)
-if negative consequences are necessary for arousal of dissonance, standard dissonance offence should occur only when person is convinced and participants feel like a deceiver - is exactly what happened - boring task rated more favourably only by participants who were offered little incentive to lie to another person and person appeared to believe lie
-proves people experience dissonance only when behaviours result in harm (or deceit) of some sort

Question 27

Writing essay in favour of position they oppose study

Answer 27

Writing essay in favour of position they oppose - if any negative consequences of such an action are made known to P’s after the fact, there’s no dissonance and hence no attitude change in direction of essay they wrote - if negative consequences were foreseen or foreseeable however, standard dissonance effect was obtained

Question 28

Self-Affirmation and Dissonance

Answer 28

If dissonance results from threats to people’s sense of themselves as rational, competent, and moral beings, it follows that they can ward off dissonance not only by dealing directly with specific threat itself but also indirectly by taking stock of their other qualities and core value

Question 29

Chopped and Ashburn-Nardo study: prejudice

Answer 29

People who value confronting prejudice but fail to do so end up evaluating the person making the prejudicial remark more favourably, and even reduce importance they place on confronting prejudice in first place
-also showed that simple self-affirmation intervention (giving nonconfronters a few minutes to make a list of their positive characteristics) eliminated need to reduce dissonance arising from failure to confront

Question 30

CD studies: is Dissonance Universal?

Answer 30

-were given self-affirmation to confirm they made the right choice (positive feedback on personality test)
-Canadians had dissonance effect finding previously unnoticed attractions in chosen CD and previously unnoticed flaws in unchosen one - no dissonance effect without receiving positive feedback on personalities
-Japanese were unaffected y self0affirmation - no dissonance effect in either condition
-if Japanese thought others were watching and were being persuaded to do something they didn’t want to do, they experienced dissonance - are more attuned to other people and their reactions
-East Indians exhibit dissonance effects in induced compliance paradigm because they question their actions when others are observing them - they also show dissonance effects in free-choice paradigm if led to think about other people’s reactions to their choice

-in another study - presence of poster with schematic faces primed the concept of social others prompting Japanese participants to show a dissonance effect (happened in standard free-choice condition - Japanese showed no dissonance reduction, but in poster condition they did - Americans weren’t effected by the poster)

-another study: in choosing CD for a friend Canadians showed much larger dissonance when choosing for themselves than for a friend, those who strongly identified as asians had much larger dissonance when choosing for a friend then for themselves

Question 31

Self-perception theory

Answer 31

People don’t always come to know their own attitudes by introspecting about what they think or how they feel about something - would rather look outward at their behaviour and context in which it occurred and infer what their attitudes must be
-self perception works like social perception - people come to understand themselves and their attitudes in same way they come to understand others and their attitudes
-can just analyze our thoughts to figure out our attitudes - prior attitudes must be “weak, ambiguous, and uninterpretable” for the individual to be in same position as outside observer
-“I suffered for this, I must have felt it was worth it”
-“If I chose this, I must like it”
-contends that no arousal is involved: people Cooley and rationally infer what their attitudes must be in light of their behaviour and the context in which it occurred

Question 32

Social Psychologists thoughts about dissonance reduction

Answer 32

Say that dissonance reduction processes both occur, and both of them influence people’s attitudes and broader views themselves
-they are activated when behaviour is inconsistent with pre-existing attitudes that are clear-cut and of some important
-self-perception processes are invoked when behaviour conflicts with attitudes that are relatively vague or less important

Question 33

Wells and Petty Study: head movement

Answer 33

-students test a set of headphones by moving heads up and down or side or side while listening to radio editorials
-when asked later about viewpoints advocated in editorials, students indicated the agreed with them more if listening to them while nodding heads up and down than if listening while shaking heads side to side

Question 34

Cacioppo, Priester, and Berntson study: pushing down or pulling up on table

Answer 34

-judged ideographs more favourably while they flex their arms than those who saw ideographs will extending their arms

Question 35

System justification theory

Answer 35

-need to think well of ourselves or what some have called ego justification motives
-need to think well of the groups to which we belong, or group justification motives
Theory: believing that the world should be fair, combined with abundant evidence of inequality, can generate a fair amount of ideological dissonance

Question 36

Terror Management Theory

Answer 36

-specifies what people do to deal with potentially crippling anxiety associated with knowledge of death in order to get on with their lives
-denial: maintain that its only physical body and this particular earthly existence that comes to an end - belief in afterlife
-many like to think about the things they value living on

Question 37

One study: morality salience

Answer 37

-P’s in one condition read esssay stating scientific consensus on reports of near death experiences (such as feelings of leaving and looking down at one’s body) is that such sensations are expected, given makeup of brain and they don’t suggest it in any way the existence of life after death
-another condition: essay arguing that such reports point of plausibility of some sort of life after death
-P’s then received favourable feedback about themselves from unreliable sources such as horoscopes and then rated source’s validity
-those who read essay that cast doubt on life after death rated feedback as more valid than those who read essay that encouraged belief in afterlife
-if we can believe there is life after death we need not be so concerned with living on symbolically, so the need for self-esteem is reduced